File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1998/marxism-international.9802, message 437


Date: Wed, 25 Feb 98 6:41:33 EST
From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: M-I: Existence of Value






		C. Sid,



	What if physiscists had been satisfied that the "laws" that Newton
discovered were teh last word on the universe?  Not a pretty picture.



	Physical laws don't "operate."  They are not things and they don't
exist.  They are human metaphors for the universe.  Likewise the LTV is a
metaphor.  As a metaphor it's good, but then so was Newtonian Dynamics. 
Einstein and Bohr were even better.  Feynman was good, too.  The LTV is
lovely, but in the final analysis it conflates profit and the power
conferred by property relations.  That's fine if one is looking for
"equillibrium", except there is no such thing.  If you don't believe me,
ask Newton.  I imagine that has found out by now that God does indeed play
quantum dice and that those dice are thermodynamically loaded. 
Labor-value is to economics what the aether is to physics.  It is a
mystical, chimerical place-holder necessary only until a more rigorous
analysis comes along.  	It's time we started developing that analysis.  




	Like the old-time physicists who believed in the aether, Marx was
doing his best to show us the nature of the universe of political economy. 
Now we all see that exploitation, and we can get on with analyzing it
instead of trying to prove a theory for its own sake.  Labor does not
create value.  It does not necessarily create things which have value or
even things at all. It creates tiredness and the expectation of payment.




	Usefulness creates value. 





	peace






     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005